Thousands of tonnes of space debris hit Earth each year, but most is in the form of dust. Large asteroids that could threaten Earth are rare. Asteroids and meteorites are different, and the largest asteroids are Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta.
Asteroids enter Earth’s atmosphere every day, but rarely make it to the surface because they tend to break up first. An estimated 37,000 to 78,000 tonnes (33,565 to 70,760 tons) of material from space hits Earth’s surface each year, but most of it is in the form of dust particles. Asteroids that would be large enough to threaten Earth only happen once every million years or so.
Read more about asteroids:
Asteroids and meteorites are not the same thing. When the debris is in space, it’s an asteroid; but once it hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.
About once a year, a car-sized asteroid hits the atmosphere, but these mostly just produce large fireballs and then burn up before hitting the ground.
The largest asteroids measured by diameter are Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta, which have mean diameters of about 591.5, 338, and 326 miles (about 952, 544, and 525.4 km), respectively.
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